660 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON TWO NEW LIZARDS. [Nov. 17, 



(Bussora of the maps), the port of Mesopotamia on the Shat el 

 Arab, the estuary formed by the united Tigris and Euphrates. All 

 the country away from the bank of the river is more or less desert ; 

 and Uromastix microlepis probably dwells in the waste dry region. 



U. microlepis is closely allied to the African U. spini2)es and U. 

 acanthinura ; it is distinguished from the former by the absence of 

 enlarged scales on the sides, and by the lateral folds on the neck 

 bearing tubercles, and from the latter by its much smaller scales. 



* 



Centrotrachelus* loricatus, sp. nov. 



C. isabellinus, fusco maculatus, tuberculis majoribus dorsalibus in 

 lineas transversas interruptas dispositis, affinis C. asmussi, a 

 quo colore pallidiore isabellino, nee olivaceo, dorso maculato, 

 squamarum majorum dorsalium seriebus magis distantibus in- 

 terruptisque, unguibus fortioribus, squamis supradigitalibus mi- 

 noribus, et carinis squamarum infra pedes posteriores in lineas 

 transversas haud obliquas dispositis, tantum divert. Statura 

 adulti maxima esse dicitur. 

 Hab. haud procul a Bushire, urbe ad litus sinus Persici. 

 Description. — •General form very massive ; head short, triangular; 

 body very broad, depressed ; tail much shorter than the body, 

 armed above and on the sides with large spinose tubercles arranged 

 in rings, about twenty-four in number, the rings extending round 

 the tail, but composed below of smaller keeled scales, diminishing in 

 size towards the base of the tail. Limbs strong, the fore leg reach- 

 ing the end of the snout when laid forward, and extending about 

 halfway to the thigh when laid back ; the hind legs along the side 

 do not nearly touch the axil. Teeth about nineteen on each side of 

 the upper jaw, and eighteen on each side of the lower, besides a 

 cutting tooth-like process on each side in front of the latter, and a 

 similar, but broader, single cutting edge in front of the upper jaw. 

 These have not the lateral portions tooth-like, as in Uromastix 

 spinipes, U. hardwicki, &c, but, as in Centrotrachelus asmussi, 

 appear to be entirely formed of a process of the bone. Tongue cleft 

 at the end. Total length of the specimen (immature) 16 inches, 

 tail from anus 7, head 1*6, fore limb 3 - 25, third toe of fore limb 

 with claw, measured from the division between the third and fourth 

 toes, 06, hind limb 4*5, third toe - 7. The femoral pores are too 

 ill developed for their number to be determined ; they appear to be 

 closer together and more numerous than in C. asmussi. 



Scales of the head above angulately convex, largest above the 

 muzzle, smallest on the superciliary regions. Scales of chin and 

 throat small. A few scattered conical tubercles on the sides of the 

 neck. Scales of the back rather irregularly rhomboidal, subimbri- 

 cate ; the majority small, but crossed by transverse rows of tuber- 

 cular, submucrouate, enlarged scales. These rows are irregular and 



* A figure of C. asmussi, Strauch, -will be given in my forthcoming account 

 of the zoology of Persia. The species was described by Strauch in 1863 (Bull. 

 Imp. Acad. Sci. St.-P6t. vi. p. 479), from a specimen obtained by Count Key- 

 serling north-west of Sistan. 



